So I am approaching semi retirement and want to realize a long term dream of seeing North America from a Motorhome. This wil be at least a 2 year adventure. However I would still like to continue my trading. I am an option spread trader and I figure I will be on the internet 2-4 hours/day with trading and just general internet usage. My concern is data connectivity, how much will i use/need? Anyone here at ET presently doing this mobile lifestyle? (Fulltime living in a motorhome/boat and still actively trading). Any advice greatly appeciated. Thanks in advance.
These are the 2 systems I see used on RV's. I'm not into RVs myself, I use KVH systems on the boat. There is of course the sat lag so no very short term trading. http://www.kvh.com/Leisure/RV-Systems/Television.aspx https://support.directv.com/ordering-dtv/592
I use two 4G Lte modems, a cradlepoint router and a Wilson amp. As long as you are in an area where your cell phone can get at least one bar the wilson Amp will work and give you a pretty good connection. The Cradlepoint router allows for two LTE modems to be connected directly and you can also use hotspots along with the modems. An example would be have one Verizon modem, one Sprint modem and a AT&T hotspot all providing load balanced internet. If one goes down you still have the other two connected. The Wilson amps work for all U.S. carriers. I am thinking about doing something similar in a couple of years. My dream is to get a sailing catamaran and bumming around the great loop. I have looked at it and there is 4g cell coverage almost the entire route with the exception of some coastal marsh areas in south carolina/georgia.
i've traveled across country a few times. I continue to trade a couple hours a day by tethering my cell phone to my laptop and stop at MCD with free wifi. Never went over my data limit, no extra charges, even went to Canada.
I will investigate that set up thanks. How much data do you think would be necessary? Im figuring a budget of $100-150 mth should cover 2-4 hours/day of internet usage along with using wifi available at campgrounds etc.
Just tether your cell phone or setup cell phone as hot spot. No additional expense for 2 hrs a day as long as your not watching movies.
I have a 40gb plan with Sprint and my backup is a 5gb plan with AT&T. I connect to a VPS in Chicago for my trading (In case of complete failure of my internet). I use the internet for normal browsing, email and watch an hour or two of Netflix at night. I RARELY exceed 30GB per month unless there is a huge windows update. I pay 110 for the Sprint plan and another 50 for the AT&T backup. You may want to consider Verizon instead of Sprint due to the better network coverage; they are much more expensive though. The Wilson Amp was 500 dollars. The Cradlepoint router was another 240 dollars. My only alternative is satellite and it doesn't work for the kind of trading I do. (Too much latency)
IF you are close to a tower. The problem is in some rural areas you will not get a good enough signal to maintain a useable signal for internet. Another useful thing about the wilson amp is it works for cell phones also. I get one bar on my cell phone at my house without the amp. Turn the amp on and it is five bars.